EU R&D spending remained stable at 2% in 2015 according to latest OECD data

On 7 February 2017 the OECD published its latest estimates of R&D investment in OECD and major economies. The OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators show that R&D intensity across OECD countries remained stable at 2.4% in 2015. R&D intensity - expenditure on R&D as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - also plateaued at 1.95% in the EU area driven by the EU countries which perform the most R&D (Germany 2.9%, France 2.2%, United Kingdom 1.7%).

In 2015, Israel narrowly overtook Korea as the country with the highest Research and Development (R&D) intensity (4.25% compared to 4.23%), reclaiming the top-spot after 2 years in second place. Japan experienced a slight decline in 2015, to 3.5%. Austria ranks fifth in terms of R&D intensity. Austria's expenditure on R&D remained stable in 2016 at 3.07%.